Speaker Mike Johnson pledged on Sunday that the House will attempt to pass the SAVE America Act “one more time” through a budget reconciliation bill, a procedural maneuver that would sidestep the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. “The president has that as a top priority, and so do I,” Johnson told Fox News’s Shannon Bream in an interview. “We passed it three times in the House. We’re going to try one more time on a budget reconciliation bill, and I think that will be the way to get it through the Senate, and finally, to the president’s desk.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections, along with photo ID before casting a ballot. Johnson defended the House version as the “backbone” of what President Trump is pushing for, saying the bill’s core focus on citizenship verification and voter ID “eliminates the problem, all the fraud and everything that everybody’s concerned about in our elections.”
The reconciliation strategy marks the administration’s latest effort to advance legislation that has repeatedly stalled in the Senate. The House passed versions of the bill in February and March 2026, each time by narrow party-line margins. However, Senate Republicans have resisted incorporating the measure into must-pass legislation, citing both procedural concerns and practical obstacles.
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, declared the bill “dead” on Capitol Hill three days earlier, saying there is insufficient time to implement voter ID provisions before the midterm elections. “Unless they do the work to get to the 60 votes, they know it’s dead, and so all this is theater,” Tillis told The News & Observer. Even with a Senate Republican majority of 53 seats, passage would require either significant Democratic support or a procedural workaround—both unlikely given unified Democratic opposition to the measure.
Johnson acknowledged internal Republican tensions over the bill, addressing Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s public vow to block House business unless the SAVE Act is attached to larger legislation. “Nobody’s mad at Anna, we all want the same thing,” Johnson said. “She’s a team player, she’s a good friend of mine. We’re going to get this done.” Luna, a Florida Republican, has called for the bill to be merged with the National Defense Authorization Act or included in a party-line budget reconciliation measure.
Democrats have mounted fierce opposition to the bill, with many characterizing it as a return to Jim Crow-era voter suppression. Critics argue the measure would disenfranchise eligible voters, particularly women, Black voters, and college-age citizens who may lack the specific documents the law requires.
Sources
- The Hill — Speaker Johnson’s July 5 interview with Fox News on the SAVE America Act and reconciliation strategy
- Congress.gov — Bill text and status information for the SAVE America Act and related legislation
- The News & Observer — Senator Thom Tillis’s statement that the SAVE America Act is “dead” due to implementation timeline concerns
